Death in Paradise
Death in Paradise is a British crime show set in the Caribbean that is honestly not very good.
Let’s talk about it anyway.
Review
Death in Paradise is not a good mystery show at all. The structure of every mystery is basically the same in that the clues don’t build up to anything coherent and the murderer is revealed at the last second. I don’t think there is a single instance where you, the viewer, can actually figure out the perpetrator before it’s revealed. Some of those reveals are nonsensical as well, but let’s not get into it.
This is also probably why critics say it’s a bad show…though they’re missing the reason people actually watch it. Was ist das, you may ask?
Characters and the setting.
Death in Paradise is unique among British shows for not being set in Britain for once…but in the Caribbean. The scenery is beautiful (most of the time) and it’s undeniably unique.
The main reason people watch this show are the characters. Seriously, if you know someone who watches this ask them what they like most and I can guarantee they’re most likely to mention the characters.
Death in Paradise is basically a police slice-of-life show masquerading as a crime/mystery show. This is what makes the show interesting and memorable and, since the first two seasons…yeah, the show has had some trouble. The first two seasons had the exact same cast and, over time, it started hemorrhaging characters. This varies from pretty bad to infuriating, as sometimes certain characters were being set up for future events…and then just disappeared.
The show suffers another thing over its long lifespan…in that the island gradually becomes less and less ‘real’ over time. The initial premise was a Caribbean island, with a partially French population that belongs to the British. The island is relatively small, with limited infrastructure and a total of 5 cops for the whole island. That includes a detective, a sergeant and the commissioner.A) The very first episode states that they don’t have a forensics lab on the island, so any forensics they do has to be done somewhere else…and then the results are air-dropped by plane some unspecified time in the future. This worldbuilding also had a purpose as one of the cops, Fidel, knew how to do basic on-sight forensics (dusting for fingerprints and comparing them) which made them work a little more efficiently.
In the later seasons…yeah, now there are more cops (who we never see)…the island can somehow support an entire television channel, several hotels and ‘theme parks’…plus they can apparently now do forensics on the island. The island is no longer a small Caribbean island. It’s London with a Caribbean skin.
So, yeah, you can tell I’ve seen a lot of this show, though I’ve stopped watching it. For those new to the series, my recommendation is to watch the first two seasons as those are ‘definitive Death in Paradise’. If you want a little more, you can continue for the third and maybe the fourth seasons. Past that point, only stick with the show as long as there are still characters you like…or if you still like the setting, somehow.